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Whitefish Normande

A dish of whitefish fillet topped with a ragout of mushrooms, onions, oysters, cider, brandy, fish stock, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cider and brandy work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 404 recipes. Both carry 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Whitefish Normande

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cook the mushrooms, onions, oysters, sweet cider, brandy, fish stock, and fine herbs together to make a ragout.

  2. Season the whitefish filet with salt and pepper, then dust it with flour.

Bake and serve

  1. Spread the ragout evenly over the fish.

  2. Cook in a cooking bag for 30 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cider + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  2. Oyster + fishtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together496 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Add briny, savoury flavour that blends into the sauce.
Sweet cider
Adds sweetness and acidity that balance the seafood and the stock.
Fish stock
Provides liquid and savoury depth for the ragout.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and moisture to the ragout.
Whitefish filet
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking gently in the bag.
Flour
Dusted on the fish to help the surface hold and thicken the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook the ragout before spreading it. The ragout's liquid should be reduced enough to thicken and cling to the fish. If it stays thin, it will run off and dilute the delicate whitefish during the bake.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, oyster, cider, brandy, fish, whitefish, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, oyster, cider, brandy, fish, whitefish, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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